As we zoom into another week, I thought it might be fun to start out with a light post, a little game of sorts, to see what you’re reading these days.
As a devoted lover of books, it’s not unusual for me to have many books and magazines stacked haphazardly on my bedside table, some of which I’m in the process of reading, some of which I’m hoping I’ll be in the mood to read soon, and some I’ve already read (multiple times) and love so much that I just can’t stand to put them back on the bookshelf just yet.
The books on my bedside stand are a reflection of my mood, of inspiration, and my goals. Books are my greatest pleasure, my stolen moments, and my meditation. I simply cannot fall asleep without reading at least a few pages of a book. And oftentimes, I like to wake up in the very early morning before the day gets too crazy, grab a book from my bedside table, and tiptoe into the living room (so as not to wake The Husband or The Daughter), and spend a delicious, silent hour curled up on the couch, reading.
And so, dear readers, I present to you, my list:
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, Book I by Maryrose Wood
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The American Woman in the Chinese Hat by Carole Maso
Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child
And on the floor next to the bed: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems, which my daughter flung to the floor this morning in a joyous fit of giggles once we finished reading it.
What about you? What’s in your reading pile (or, for those of you techie folks out there, on your Kindle/iPad/e-reader thingy) at the moment?
Currently I’m in the middle of my seventh Kathy Reichs novel – that’s my bus ride reading
I have piles of books in the various rooms of the house waiting to be read or re-read. They’re a mixture of adult and children’s books. Some of them are: The Summer of My German Soldier, The Wind and the Willows, Twenty-Seven Bones, Skin, The Diary of Anne Frank, The ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture, Ghost Stories of the Sea, The Writer’s Guide to Crafting Stories for Children (that book is amazing -I’m on my fourth read).
If your daughter likes the Pigeon stories, check out Mo’s Piggy and Elephant series. My niece’s favorite is ‘Pigs Make Me Sneeze.’
Currently on my night stand The Child Thief by Brom,
Feed by M.T. Anderson
Chamber of Secrets (in an attempt to read the whole series again)
A critique partner’s manuscript
A wind-up bird chronicle by Haruki Murakami which my husband insists that I will love, but I’m slowly realizing it’s about a guy who looses his cat.
I am currently in the middle of Wolf Hall, which is the best book I have read in years—written with such verve and sure-footedness it defies description. A rollicking entertaining page-turner about a figure in Henry VIII’s court. Awesome.
After that is the new William Gibson, Zero History but also a reread of Neuromancer because it helps to see again what a deft hand he is.
Tana French’s The Likeness. Dumas’ The Three Musketeers (fewer than two hundred pages left, but keep putting it aside for other things). Cronin’s The Passage. And Belle Prater’s Boy.
Oh, and Kim: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle ends up being about much more than a lost cat, though you may wonder by the end precisely what the heck is going on. It’s a great, weird book.
The House of the Scorpion: Nancy Farmer
To Kill a Mockingbird: Harper Lee
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Stieg Larsson
Question… Why do I have such difficulty connecting with The Great Gatsby? It has been sitting unread on my nightstand for what must be eight years.
Kim: I will definitely check out Pigs Make Me Sneeze on my next library run. Thanks for the suggestion!
Munk: Sometimes we’re just not in the right mood and so we don’t connect with a certain book. Numerous times I have picked up a book (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay comes to mind) and just wasn’t in the right mood to read it, and so I put it down again…and again…and again. But when I finally came to it at the right time–what fun!
So try Gatsby every now and then. Maybe sometime soon, the timing will be right.
Happy reading!
The Replacement, by Brenna Yovanoff
Clockwork Angel, by Cassandra Clare
Halo, by Alexandra Adornetto
Jealousy, by Lili St. Crow
Losing Faith, by Denise Jaden …
and about fifteen others.
On brand new Kindle (yay!), The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender; A Happy Marriage by Rafael Yglesias; and The Good and Beautiful God, James Bryan Smith.
On nightstand, Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese; Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X Stork; and When a Crocodile Eats the Sun by Peter Godwin.
BTW, my 10-year-old was crazy about Incorrigible Children.. thought it was hysterical. So I’ll be borrowing her copy and reading it soon too.
The Glamour of Grammar by Roy Peter Clark – a delightful read for any linguaphile or any geek like me who can read pages over the usage of the semi-colon.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya A. – because I’ve never read it and my mother told me I should. Powerful memoir.
The Ladies of Seneca Falls by Miriam Gurko – for my book club…good non-fiction stuff. Driving my husband crazy with feministic facts.
Geez, I’m dying for some fiction… Sixteen tempting tomes waiting to be read…not to mention a few downloads on the Kindle. At least I finished the Mockingjay! (In the nick of time before my 13-year old daughter got her hands on it.) But my 9-year old son has piqued my interest with Percy Jackson…do I dare start on the Riordan series?
On my TBR Pile:
Stardust by Neil Gaman: I loved the movie so I’m pretty curious to see if they stuck to the book.
Parts 2 & 3 of the Dragon Tattoo trilogy: I liked the first, but I believe the next two are even better.
I’m reading:
The Fourth Stall by Chris Rylander (forthcoming from Harper)
You Killed Wesley Payne by Sean Beaudoin (forthcoming from Little, Brown)
Carter Finally Gets It by Brent Crawford
And lots and lots of client books/submissions
@Gargi: Stardust was the first Gaiman novel I read. A trusted friend told me I’d like it, I said, “But it’s about faeries,” he said, “Just shut up and try it!” I’ve really loved Gaiman ever since. Enjoy.
Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (at the insistence of my husband)
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Various installments of L.M. Montgomery’s journals (which I find fascinating as an Anne of Green Gables lover at heart)
There is always a tumbling pile of books by my bed. Right now
An Impartial Witness by Charles Todd – which could have been shorter
The Nobodies Album by Carolyn Parkhurst – going well so far
Growing a Garden City by Jeremy N. Smith
Holy Shit! these two to be reviewed
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner – rereading for Book Club
and Rose’s Heavenly Cakes because I need to decide what to make for dessert – Gourmet Club on Sunday.
My reading pile is threatening to collapse on me as usual.
Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers
Rampant by Diana Peterfreund
The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan
Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow
Sea Change by Aimee Friedman
Enjoy Gatsby! It’s one of my all time favorite novels. 🙂 My TBR pile right now holds:
1) The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
2) The Printer’s Devil by Paul Bajoria
3) London: A Biography
4) Bewitching Season by Marissa Doyle
My reading pile is mostly Aussie writers plus two ‘ring-ins’:
Kindling by Darren Groth (brilliant!)
Big River Little Fish by Belinda Jeffrey (also a fantastic, intelligent read, beautifully written)
Charlie and the Red Hot Chilli Pepper (by me – yes, guilty of the pleasure of smelling the inside new book smell!)
UK writer, Val McDermid’s Fever of the Bone(fab thriller with character, Tony Hill)
Hank Zipzer – the World’s Greatest Underachiever – a VERY funny and well-written book for 8-10 year olds by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver.
I’ll be going back for more of Hank Zipzer. Henry ‘The Fonz’ is a good writer, don’t know why I assumed otherwise. Shame on me!
Only just got on to the Hank Zipzer’s stories because Lin Oliver was the guest speaker at the Australian SCBWI conference in Sydney recently. Lovely to meet her! Hope Lin comes back to Australia one day!
. . . recently, The Telling by Beverly Lewis, Clay’s Quilt by Silas House, The Book of Esther (Old Testament).